How to Identify the Eisenhower Dollar

Begin with the obverse. An Eisenhower Dollar shows a bare left-facing profile of Dwight D. Eisenhower, with LIBERTY curving across the top and IN GOD WE TRUST in small letters in front of the neck. The date sits below the bust; a standard example like the one here reads 1974. That presidential profile is the quickest way to confirm the type.

Turn the coin over and read the reverse carefully, because it tells you which kind of Ike Dollar you have. The standard reverse — used in 1971–1974 and 1977–1978 — shows an eagle with raised wings landing on the cratered Moon, gripping an olive branch, with a small Earth behind it and E PLURIBUS UNUM around the rim. If instead you see a Liberty Bell superimposed on the Moon, you have a 1776–1976 Bicentennial coin, a different reverse. The eagle-on-the-Moon design is the non-Bicentennial issue.

Check size and metal next. The Eisenhower Dollar is large: about 38.1 mm across (roughly the size of the old silver dollars) and near 22.7 grams, with a reeded edge. Look at that edge closely. A circulating copper-nickel clad coin shows a distinct copper-colored stripe sandwiched between silver-gray faces; a 40% silver-clad collector coin has a more uniform, brighter edge. This edge view is one of the most reliable ways to tell clad from silver-clad.

Locate the mint mark on the obverse, just above the date. D is Denver, S is San Francisco, and no mint mark means Philadelphia. The S-mint coins are generally the collector proofs and silver-clad issues, so an S mark is a cue to check whether you have a special version rather than a circulation strike. Because most Eisenhower Dollars are common, the main authentication caution is simply matching composition to expectation: only San Francisco silver-clad coins contain silver, so be skeptical of any seller claiming a plain 1974 D or no-mint-mark coin is silver. For high-value or purportedly rare varieties, a reputable grading service can confirm both the strike and the metal.